“We’ll make it work.”
“Again with thiswe!Just tell me where he is Ti, I need to know where he is.”
“Rae, look at me.” He tilted her jaw. “Miles will be safe, I won’t let anything happen to him. I promise.”
“You see, this is why I can’t trust you. Why would a man I’m assigned to kill do that?” Her voice cracked. “Winter should have made the drop off by now.” She wanted to run, the urge growing. He made her feel exposed, weak, something she couldn’t afford to be.
He seemed to sense her change, not pushing her for more. “Lead the way.”
Rae choked down the emotions, moving towards the edge of the market once more. “I just… I have to pay off the loan sharks, I’ll figure out everything else after.”
“How many times has he done this?” Titus asked when they’d come to the edge of the market. The area quieter, the surrounding restaurants and shops swallowing the crowd.
“Enough.” More times than she’d cared to count. “But he’s my brother.”
“That’s not an excuse for him to treat you like shit.” Titus easily kept pace, walking beside her as she found the small gap between the bollards, descending the concrete steps into the underground multi-storey car park. The lights above flickered eerily, if they worked at all. The majority of the space was covered in shadows, the security strips, along with the cameras long broken. Only a handful of cars were parked on the level, the lack of light uncomfortable for many, and the exact reason the guild used it for drop-offs.
“He’s family.” Rae stopped walking, spinning so fast he almost bumped into her. “You don’t turn your back on family.” She ignored the sour taste settling on her tongue. “He’s all I have.”
Titus looked like he wanted to say more, but instead she crouched, counting the bricks along the wall until she reached her favourite number. Gently removing the correct one, she found a black bag hidden behind. Every Ravyn she’d earned through the guild wasn’t hers, and even after three years since she was first contracted for Crimson Hollow, she’d only ticked twelve kills against her one hundred.
But there was the money she’d been able to take from private hits she’d kept, hiding it from everyone. She was paid mainly in pounds, giving her a little sense of independence along with her small allowance. But some were in Ravyns, and those were the hits she sought after, even if they were few and far between.
Opening the bag, she counted each small, black opal coin carefully. Thirty-five thousand Ravyns, that was all she’d been able to save when her contract was ten million, not including interest. She was stupid to believe she’d ever have been able to buy herself out.
“If I don’t break out of my contract soon,” she whispered, more to herself. “I don’t think I’ll ever be free of it.”
“We’re going to figure it out.” Gentle fingers along her jaw, tilting her head up. “I promise.”
“Again with thewe,” she said, hating the vulnerability. “Why? You don’t owe me anything.”
“Because we all make bad decisions, and you don’t deserve to be punished for protecting your brother.”
Rae closed her eyes, opening them when Titus squeezed slightly. “I’m not a good person.”
“Neither am I.” Titus shook his head. “But ‘good’ is a perspective. The choices I make are for what I believe is good, but someone else might consider cruel. We don’t live in a world of black and white, Rae. There’s no such thing as good or bad, only grey.”
“Why do you have to make this so fucking hard?” she snarled. “Jesus Christ.” Stepping back, she quickly scanned the stairs. “You only have a few minutes.”
His eyes hardened. “Rae, what have you done?”
“I wasn’t thinking straight, I just –”
A bullet hit the car, shattering the rear window.
They both ducked, Titus dropping his rucksack to pull her beneath him before returning fire.
“Please,” she said, lifting her skirt for her own pistol. “Run.”
He crouched low, barely reacting to the bullets that buried themselves in the wall.
“I fucked up.” Guilt twisted her into a knot. “Please, just... I’ll distract her so you can get away.”
“There’s no assignment.” Titus concentrated on whoever was shooting, jaw clenched. “I’ve removed myself from the system. I’m no longer a paid hit.”
His words echoed in her ears. “Impossible. My mark’s still active.” Something cold and solid settled in her gut. “Wait, why didn’t you just delete me?” Her heart hurt, the ache of being left behind. Again. “You could’ve fixed it, fixed all of it. That was the deal.”
“What fucking deal, Rae? Look where we are.” His eyes were harsh when they settled on hers. “Now, are we running, or fighting?”
